


The night is darkest just before dawn

by Fujitsu



Category: Gintama
Genre: Bromance, Brotherly Bonding, Drama, Gen, Humor, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-03
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-17 17:51:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14836350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fujitsu/pseuds/Fujitsu
Summary: Even the Prince of Sadists have fears, but he'll never be alone, even after his sister's death.





	The night is darkest just before dawn

Hollow sound of steps broke the silence of the evening as small feet crossed the hallway. A boy around 10 years old with sandy-blonde hair stopped before the lightly opened fusuma, peeked inside and waited breathless. In the room there was a young man, his ink black hair in a ponytail, prepared for dinner. Before him on the small table there was a bowl full of rice. He grabbed a bottle with red cap and poured its content on the steaming rice. The boy almost puked at the sight.

His hands started to sweat because of the excitement as he saw the lad stretched for his chopsticks. He put the chopsticks into the food to take a bite when…BANG! The bowl suddenly exploded, sent its content everywhere. The raven stared at it surprised, his face and hair full of rice and mayonnaise. He woke from his trance when he heard giggles from the fusuma’s direction. He immediately turned his head and saw a pair of gleaming maroon eyes.

“Sougo, you little shit!” He roared while he jumped up from the table to catch and probably kill the not-so-innocent boy.

“Now you can be one with your shitty food Hijikata-san!”  Said Sougo as he ran through the hallway.

“You blew up my dinner and wasted precious mayonnaise! If I catch you I’ll skin you alive!” Hijikata yelled, his face was red with anger; his eyes flashed like a demon’s.

The raven chased the damned brat around the house but couldn’t catch him. When he realized Sougo was gone he fumed and decided to let him go now. He directed his steps to the bathroom to wash himself off of the food and plan his revenge against the little devil.

When Sougo didn’t hear footsteps and feel the danger anymore he opened Hijikata’s closet a bit, made sure that the bastard really gave up, then came out with a smile on his face. As he started to cross the room to leave, he saw a sudden bright flash from the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to the open shouji which leaded to the porch. A slight breeze came through it, ruffled his hair, then he heard it. Deep rumble of the thunder.

Stunned, he felt the cold sweat ran down his neck and back. Sougo didn’t fear, no, and even if he did he’d never admit it. He was fearless, he had to be especially now when he became a member of the group which, leaded by Kondou-san, headed to Edo and planned to become a part of it.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, memories of his sister, who stayed behind, came to his mind. He saw her smiling and kind face. When she’d looked at her little brother she always knew if Sougo had a problem. Even times like this she’d put his head on her lap and told soothing words with soft voice, while she’d been brushing her brother’s face and hair.

When Sougo drew another deep breath he felt his sister’s nice smell, her warm fingers on his cheeks and heard her quiet words.

_“Don’t worry Sou-chan! Raijin-sama won’t take you ‘till your stomach is covered.”_ While she’d been speaking she’d put the cover straight around her little brother. _“The farmers will be happy that he came again, they’ll get a fair crop. That means I can make delicious bentou for you Sou-chan.”_ She’d always spoken and told stories until her brother had fallen asleep. Sougo was in deep thoughts, concentrating to his sister to calm down, so he didn’t hear the approaching footsteps from behind.

Hijikata came back from the bathroom where he took a shower and for several minutes he tried to take out the small pieces of rice from his hair. Sometimes this long hair was a pain in the ass. _Maybe I should cut it._ When he finished he decided to change his yukata which was also splattered with mayonnaise.

When he opened the fusuma to his room he stopped as he saw Sougo was standing next to his futon looking outside. _So now he is planning to fuck up my sleep, too. Little bastard, as if I’m gonna let you do some shit again._ He approached the boy with long, forceful steps and grabbed him by the collar of his yukata.

“Got you!” He said triumphantly. “Any last words?”

There was a loud thunder again when Sougo felt somebody took hold of his clothes. He yelped with shock, twisted away and flinched backward. Hijikata was surprised when he saw the scared Sougo. He never reacted like this before. When the raven realized what the source of Sougo’s fear was, he smirked.

“Ooh, don’t tell me you fear from thunderstorms? You should go and quickly cover your bellybutton before Raijin-sama or the Raiju take and eat you.” He chuckled.

“I.. I d-don’t believe in fairytales!” The boy said with shaking voice but determination in his eyes. He still felt his running heart and the blood pounding in his ears.

“Fairytales, you say. Don’t come to me crying when the Raiju appear and eat your stomach!” And with that he passed Sougo and opened his closet to change his clothes.

Sougo didn’t move the entire time while Hijikata took off the dirty yukata then put on the clean one. He went to leave the room when he suddenly stopped and turned.

“I guess you haven’t eaten dinner yet.” And with that he left to make a new bowl of rice for himself.

Seconds later he heard quiet footsteps following him, he didn’t need to look back to know that it was Sougo. When they reached the kitchen the raven took two bowl and put the remained cooked rice in it. The boy’s stomach started to growl at the sight; he didn’t realize before how hungry he was. Hijikata gave the bowl and chopsticks to the boy, they sat down and started to eat in silence. Sougo still trembled a little next to him but didn’t say anything just ate his rice. When he finished he stood up and put his bowl away.

“If you finish go to sleep.” Then he left.

Actually he had a little sympathy for the boy, he was young and the sister who looked after and cared for him had left behind. The woman Hijikata cared for, too. But they had to be brave, they couldn’t turn or look back. They’d get back the samurais and their own pride and Sougo already had the courage to leave Bushuu so he’d used to it.

He yawned, tired from today’s events, he just wanted to snuggle inside his covers and sleep but that desire was interrupted when he saw a lump on his futon. He sighed and went to check the covers and he wasn’t surprised when saw the kid under it.

“What are you doing in my futon?” He asked, already tired of Sougo’s stupid plots.

“I think I left something here.” Sougo answered quietly.

“Then find it quickly and go to your room.”

Hijikata tried to clean his room a little while he waited for Sougo to go to hell already but the boy just pulled the blanket up to his head again. It was clear to the raven that the kid didn’t intend to leave so he just rolled his eyes, lied down and put the covers around him. Whereupon Sougo became stiff for a second and snapped at him.

“What are you doing?”

“Sleep.”

“I don’t want to sleep with you, you disgusting mayo freak!”

“This is my futon! If you don’t like something just go to your room. Now shut up, I don’t want to hear any more sound from you!”

Sougo didn’t like the situation he was in; he wanted to get rid of the raven bastard but while he thought about his next move, a louder thunder was heard from outside. He involuntarily grabbed the front of Hijikata’s yukata. Hijikata didn’t say anything just put his arm around the boy and pulled him a little closer.

“Eww, you smell like mayo!” Sougo said but didn’t move away. He was embarrassed and angry at himself; he didn’t want to show his vulnerable side to the mayora but despite that he was secretly grateful for the warmness and protection.

“And you smell like trouble and sadism, disgusting!” The raven said with sleepy voice and closed eyes.

When they heard another loud rumble Hijikata started to slowly stroke the boy’s small back to comfort him; that calmed Sougo enough to close his eyes and try to sleep. Some minutes later his regular breathing indicated that he was fast asleep, so Hijikata pulled the blanket and covered the boy properly. He didn’t need much time either to fall asleep.

…

His eyes snapped open suddenly. He rubbed them and slowly sat up to check his surroundings; became calmer when he realized his room’s familiar walls at the Shinsengumi headquarters. _Again some stupid dream._ Since his sister died he often dreamt about her or his past. Fortunately these dreams weren’t bad just annoyed him.

While he thought about this he heard a rumble outside. He turned his head to the slightly opened shouji. Despite the storm was coming, the moon’s light still could came through the small gap and made a silver stripe on his cover. _How ironic._ He thought with a small smile.

He yawned and put his head back on the pillow, readjusted his sloppy sleeping mask and turned to his side. When he tried to go back to sleep a familiar smell came to his nostrils. _Smoke._ He put his mask on his forehead and opened his eyes again, focused on the shouji where he could barely caught somebody’s silhouette. _Tch, why is that bastard still up?_

“Just die already, Hijibaka.” He mumbled quietly then snuggled in his covers and decided to go back to sleep.

Despite Hijikata heard Sougo, he didn’t react anything. Just stood outside and blew out the smoke slowly as a light breeze danced through his dark locks. After another thunder raindrops slowly started to fall from the pitch-black sky. He waited ‘till he heard Sougo’s light snoring which implied he was already asleep. Then he dropped his cigarette, stomped on it and went back to his room, and composed himself to rest.

**Author's Note:**

> Raijin is a god of lightning, thunder and storms in the Shinto religion.  
> Raiju is the companion of Raijin.  
> It's believed that Raijin is credited with eating the navels or abdomens of children, that's why when storms came, parents told their children to hide their navels so that they hadn't been taken away.  
> I just wanted to write some brotherly shit between the two. I hope they're not too OOC. Thank you for reading! <3


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